HM 135

1. ff. 1-82v: [heading partially cropped:] [Liber?] qui [dictus?] hocclyf compositus a[nno?] Rege henrico quinto, Musyng vpon the restelesse besynesse/ Wyche that this troubly worlde hath ay on honde…[f. 32:] Hic incipit prologus de principum regimine, Hy noble and myȝty prince excellent/ my lord the prince o my lorde gracious…[f. 34v:] Hic trattat de principum regimine incipiendo de fide servanda, Now gracious prince agayn that the corone/ honour thou schal with ryal dignite…In swyche a cas ys wysdam to schaunge/ good ys your counsell be to your foos straunge//
IMEV 2229. F. J. Furnivall, ed., Hoccleve’s Works. EETS es 72 (London 1897); 1 leaf missing after f. 29 with loss of stanzas 233-240; 4 leaves missing after f. 30 with loss of stanzas 249-280; 1 leaf
missing after f. 67 with loss of stanzas 577-584; text ends defectively at the end of stanza 704 with loss of the final 76
stanzas, presumably 9 to 10 folios. Disorder in the text with respect to the printed edition: on f. 39v, in stanza 352, line
2460 precedes line 2458; on f. 76v, stanza 659 is copied between stanzas 654 and 655. That the scribe was copying from his
exemplar page by page is shown by the disorder on f. 51: stanzas 421 and 422 were copied in their correct order at the top
of f. 48v; they were then repeated after stanza 440 at the top of f. 51 (conjunct to f. 48, in positions 5 and 8 of quire
5); the scribe evidently became aware of his error at the end of stanza 422, because its last line was not copied; the scribe
then placed the required stanza 441 in the outer margin, copied stanzas 442 and 443 in the normal text space, but was forced
to place stanza 444 in the outer margin to recoup space and catch up with his exemplar for the beginning of f. 51v. For a
list of 43 manuscripts, including HM 135, see M. C. Seymour, “The Manuscripts of Hoccleve’s Regiment of Princes,” Edinburgh Bibliographical Society Transactions 4 pt. 7 (1974) 253-97.2. ff. 83-86v: [Anonymous, Mirror of the Periods of Man’s Life:] //Go from me & make the a frere/ Myn age ys now in xl ȝere…Wyth outen synne thedyr to wende/ Wyth loue to sen that fayre face. Amen. [space] Here ys wryten how mankynde dothe wende/
Wanne the lyf ys browȝt to the ende. Explicit totum.
IMEV 1259. F. J. Furnivall, ed., “Mirror of the Periods of Man’s Life,” Hymns to the Virgin and Christ. EETS os 24 (London 1867) 58-78; with respect to the printed edition, the stanzas in HM 135 are: 39, 41-43, 46-47, 44-45, 35, 54, 52-53, 49, 63, 59, 55-58,
48, 50, 61-62, with a leaf missing after f. 85, 74 (last 2 lines only), 77-81.Paper (Ciseaux similar to Briquet 3754, Palermo 1456; Tête de boeuf similar to Briquet 15089, Soleure 1488 and Briquet 15105, Fribourg 1449; no watermark on ff. 83-86), ff. ii (modern paper) + 86 + ii (modern paper); 268 × 200 (190 × 150) mm. 1-212 312(-6 after f. 29; -8 through 11 after f. 30) 4-612 712(-1 after f. 67) 8 (ff. 79-82, all singletons, with loss of the following 9 to 10 leaves?) 9 (ff. 83-86, all singletons, with
loss of text before f. 83—5 folios?, and some loss after f. 85—1 folio?).
Quire and leaf signatures in letters and roman numerals placed on horizontal bounding line directly across from the last line
of text. 28 lines of verse in 4 spaced stanzas of 7 lines each in art. 1; in art. 2, 29-32 unspaced lines of verse. Frame ruled in
dry point. Written in a mixed secretary script with headings in a bastard anglicana; art. 2 apparently by the same scribe.
Although the leaf which would have contained the Chaucer portrait (with stanzas 712-716) is missing, the manuscript does not
appear luxurious enough to have had one. Opening initial, f. 1, 4-line in red with blue-green flourishing; 3- and 2-line initials
in the same style (e.g. ff. 32, 40, 49v) in art. 1 only.
Scattered marginal notes by the scribe and others; later pen trials include on f. 28v, an alphabet; on f. 32, s. XVII, 4 lines of verse with reference to Thomas Coryate, “Whatt matters for the place I first came from…” and on f. 47, 2 lines, “Whan that I was <cropped>/ and young, and fa<cropped>”
(Leicester Bradner, ed., The Poems of Queen Elizabeth I, Providence R.I. 1964, p. 7).
Lower outer corners of ff. 4, 29, 84 torn away, the last with some loss of text.
Bound, s. XIX, in English brown calf, blind tooled; marbled endpapers; by same binder as for HM 139 (cf. tool on turn-ins).Written in England in the third quarter of the fifteenth century. Obvious wear and soil on ff. 1 and 82v suggest that art. 1 was once a separate
volume.
Pen trials throughout the volume include these names: s. XVI, f. 12, “Thomas Parrsie gent.”; f. 25, “Noverint universi per presentes nos Thomam Catffieldes”; s. XVII, f. 1, “Henricus Smitheus” (rubbed); f. 6, “To the Right honourable the Ea[rl] of Essex at Chartley <cropped>”; f. 17, “William Wacker of Ifield in the”; f. 31, “Thomas Mid” and in the same hand, f. 32, “Johannes”; f. 36, “Noverint universi per present[es] Henricus Colse de Michem <cropped> Commitat. Surrey gent. et <cropped> Hother of Horsham in the <cropped> Sussex.” Seymour (see above) has suggested that this manuscript may be identified with one owned by Richard Heber, his sale, Evans, 10 February 1836, lot 1163 which “wants beginning and end and has been cruelly mutilated in the middle for the sake of the illumination”; however, there
is no reason to suppose that HM 135 is mutilated at the beginning. Thorpe cat. (1836) lot 610 to Sir Thomas Phillipps; Phillipps n. 8980; his shelfmark in blue crayon on f. i verso, “B. 33.459.”
Acquired privately by Henry E. Huntington through A. S. W. Rosenbach in 1923.